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The United States intelligence agencies believe that bodies pertaining to the Ukrainian government have authorized the car bomb attack which killed political philosopher Alexander Dugin's daughter, Darya Dugina. The US officials providing the information in question divulged it to The New York Times. 

Read more: Russian FSB: Ukraine's special services behind Darya Dugina's murder

US officials fear that this part of Washington's covert campaign could widen the scope and severity of the conflict. 

The officials claimed that the US did not provide intelligence or other forms of assistance. The NYT sources also claimed that they were not aware of the operation beforehand, and had they been consulted, they would have opposed the assassination.

Evidence of Ukrainian complicity was shared with US governmental officials last week, against a background of Kiev denying involvement in killing Dugina. Top Ukrainian officials kept repeating those denials, particularly when asked about Washington's intelligence involvement. 

According to the NYT, US officials have been dissatisfied with Kiev's lack of transparency about its military and covert schemes on Russian soil in particular.

As for the real target of the assassination, some US officials speculate that Dugina's father, a Russian intellectual, was the actual target and not his daughter.

The bodies in the Ukrainian government that may have planned out the assassination were not disclosed. Whether the Ukrainian president authorized the assassination or not was also in question, and was not disclosed. 

The officials who spoke to the NYT spoke on the condition of anonymity.

In late August, The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) revealed that Ukrainian citizen Vovk Natalya, part of the Ukrainian special services, was behind the murder. 

"The crime was prepared and committed by the Ukrainian special services. The performer is a citizen of Ukraine Vovk Natalya ... born in 1979, who arrived in Russia on July 23, 2022, together with her daughter ... In order to organize the murder of D. Dugina and obtain information about her lifestyle, they rented an apartment in Moscow in the house where the deceased lived," the FSB said.  

The assassination was carried out at 21:35 Moscow time. Witnesses divulged that the explosion happened in the middle of the road, where debris and metal wreckage scattered in the air right before the car crashed into a fence, as seen in photos and videos.